SIXTY-FIVE years ago they landed in Normandy on D-Day. Yesterday, the men gathered in Westminster Abbey, joined together for evensong for one last time to remember their own youth, and those who never came home.
Nearly 1,000 members of the Normandy Veterans’ Association, dressed in blue blazers complete with service medals, had made the journey, along with sons, daughters and grandchildren.
The veterans, said Canon Martyn Percy, knew what duty meant, and means. The time for its revival “is ripe” in a world where the heroes of today so often are those whose lives are “marked by consumerism and celebrity”.
“Freedom to choose is not all it is cracked up to be. Our society needs to revive the meaning of duty,” he told the congregation, which included British prime minister Gordon Brown and the Duke of Gloucester.
So much of the day was about farewell. The Westminster choir sang the Nunc Dimittis, or the Song of Simeonwho, according to the Book of Luke, had been promised by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he had seen the Saviour. "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace: according to thine word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared," the choir sang, as old men dealt silently with their memories.
Reading from Ecclesiastes, Maj Gen Tony Richardson, who landed on D-Day with the Essex Yeomanry, said: “Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come. The end of the matter; all has been heard. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
A wreath was then laid at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
In June, those still fit and able returned to the five Normandy beaches that claimed thousands of their comrades. Few of them will make the journey again.
In September, they paraded in Duxford, while yesterday’s reunion in Westminster was the last to be held. “Inevitably, the membership of the association decreases with each passing year. Eventually, no veterans will remain,” said the association.
However, its decision to end the anniversaries has infuriated many veterans. “The powers-that-be are saying this will probably be the last one, and to me that is absolutely horrible,” said Charles Jeffries.
Often, he said, the old soldiers will only talk about their wartime experiences with comrades. “They don’t discuss their feelings or what happened with their families. My daughters and my nephew never knew what action I had been in.”
But time marches on, and the veterans know it.
“There used to be 86 in our branch in Shrewsbury. Now there are only 12 left. It was all such a long time ago,” one still-sprightly veteran said, as he waited for a bus to take him home.